HD Video (25:19), 2023
For more than thirty years, my father has been travelling from Georgia to Germany or the Netherlands to buy second-hand cars, preferably Mercedes Sprinter vans. He packs them full of bicycles and furniture such as used leather sofas, chairs, and tables. For some years now, he has also been buying scrap cars. He dismantles them into their components, which he sends to Georgia by container, often on behalf of Georgian wholesalers.
Then my father drives 4,800 kilometres back to Georgia in a Sprinter alone. Spare parts and second-hand goods from Europe are valuable enough in Georgia to sell them for a small profit, despite the high cost of travel. This is how my father earns his living in the international flow of goods – under difficult conditions: hard physical work, health hazards, separation from his family, poor accommodations.
Shooting this film was probably the most difficult of my life. My father and I both live between Georgia and Central Europe. But in the time I’ve been living in Europe, my values and lifestyle have changed a lot, while my father insists on traditional social obligations. This creates tension between us.
